Jacob Zuma and the New South Africa

I must confess I am a little surprised by the amount of sycophancy being displayed by some supposedly educated people towards South Africa's new president-elect Jacob Zuma.

Not hugely surprised, but still. Mark Austin wrote in yesterday's Sunday Mirror:

After ridding itself of apartheid and embracing democracy, South Africa has come a long way in 15 years.

But now the “Rainbow Nation” stands at a crossroads as this weekend Jacob Zuma becomes the new president.

He’s endorsed by Nelson Mandela, but clouds of suspicion hover over him after charges of corruption were dropped just before the election.

The new president insists he’s innocent, but many people are worried for the future.
Let’s hope Jacob Zuma proves his critics wrong and turns out to be the president the people of that country deserve.

To which I must ask, is there a less appropriate person to address with this rhetoric than Zuma?

To me, Jacob Zuma sums up pretty much everything that is wrong with modern South Africa. Crime, corruption, tribalism, 'big man' syndrome and the idea that poverty is pretty much an excuse for anything.

Because, in all honesty, South Africa has not 'come a long way in 15 years'. It has actually fallen a long way in that time in almost every conceivable sense and is now to all intents and purposes a Third World country (and no, I'm not necessarily defending apartheid).

What South Africa deserves is a president who does not subscribe to primitive beliefs about 'not leaving a woman in heat'. What it deserves is a president who did not take campaign funds from Colonel Gaddafi, and did not have over 700 corruption, fraud, racketeering and tax evasion charges against him dropped due to 'political interference' (in the words of the National Prosecution Agency).

The idea that garnering Nelson Mandela's support makes him a benevolent candidate is patent nonsense. Mandela himself is no saint, and as far as I can tell Zuma represents what many always felt the ANC should be about. His election anthem, 'bring me my machine gun', might be a warning, surely?

What of Zuma's background itself? Until a few years ago, he was an unashamed Communist. During the apartheid years he led the intelligence section of the ANC's feared armed wing, 'Spear of the Nation'.

He's an unashamed polygamist with four wives and up to twenty children.

Yet still he feels qualified to pontificate to the voters about various issues. How can his views on the violent crime and corruption which blights the country be taken seriously? He has a rape charge (quashed in court) on his record, plus the aforementioned corruption charges (783, to be exact).

Overpopulation, unsustainable families and promiscuity are also huge problems, fuelling not only poverty but the AIDS crisis - again, how can he judge? It is the purest hypocrisy.

In a just society, Zuma would be in prison, not presidential office.

Peter Hitchens wrote an excellent article on the subject which was published on the 22nd April. I would urge anyone who wants a clearer understanding of these issues and how potentially dangerous Zuma is to read it.

As Hitchens points out, the world was too busy hailing Mandela as a saint to intervene or pay any special attention to South Africa when it might have mattered - Zuma is just a bump on the slope of the country's decline, aided and abetted by smug liberal Westerners.

As Zuma was being lauded, despite the ANC losing the super-majority it needed if it wished to change the constitution, it was business as usual for the ordinary people of South Africa.

I've written here before about the 'Plaasmoorde', the spate of farm attacks that have killed over 3,000 white farmers since the end of apartheid.

However, this total does not include urban crime - some estimate that between 7,000 and 9,000 white South Africans may have been killed by this crime spree, many raped or brutally tortured to death even when little is stolen.

On Saturday, a gang carjacked 5 teenage girls in Germiston. If it was not for the fact that two of the girls were highly skilled in martial arts, the situation could have been far worse than a broken nose and an injured foot between them:

Five teenage girls in a car may appear to be a soft target for would-be hijackers - but not if two of them are highly skilled martial artists.

On Wednesday night, Niccie Grobelar, 17, her sister Joanne, 16, and three of their friends Marlecia Marais, 18 and twins Estie and Simone de Kock, 18 - had planned a girls' night out at a nightclub in Germiston.

The five went to collect other friends a few streets away.

When they arrived in Lambton Street, Estie - who was driving the two-door Ford Fiesta - said four men attacked them.

"I had just got out of the car and was unlocking the front seat so that my friends could climb out when they pounced on us. "Four of the girls were already out of the car and one was still in the back.

The girls claim two of their assailants pushed two of them to the pavement while the other two went for the Grobelar sisters."One of them came to me and aggressively demanded the keys. I refused to hand the keys and we wrestled," Niccie said.

What the hijacker didn't count on was that Niccie was South Africa's under-17 martial arts champion last year.

Nor did his accomplice realise that Niccie's sister, Joanne, is also trained in martial arts. "My dad taught us martial arts, so we gave them a serious hiding," Niccie said.

Had it not been for a gun, the two girls believe they would have been able to fight off the hijackers. As the men drove off, Niccie charged at them and grabbed onto the driver.

She hung on for about 300m before losing her grip when a wheel went over one of her feet. "I fell onto the road and rolled several times, and ended on the pavement."

In the meantime, 400m from where Niccie had fallen, the hijackers stopped to let the fifth girl out of the backseat before making off with the vehicle.

Niccie was taken to Netcare's Union Hospital in Alberton.

Surgeon Dr M Somwe said the teenager was scheduled for surgery to reconstruct her nose, which had been broken in five places.

He said Niccie's foot, which had torn ligaments, was to be assessed to determine whether it could be operated on.

Meanwhile, Germiston police said the vehicle had a satellite tracking device and had been traced to Natalspruit. There had been no arrests.

Sadly, such things are the tip of an iceberg - but I'm not sure that Mr Zuma is quite the man to stop it.

Far from ending South Africa's tragic slide into Third World obscurity, I imagine he will help speed it up.

Let's just pray that all those in danger are able to pack for Perth sooner rather than later.